Antoniazzo Romano

Antonio di Benedetto Aquilo degli Aquili (c. 1430 – c. 1510), known as Antoniazzo Romano, was an Italian Early Renaissance painter, the leading figure of the Roman school during the latter part of the 15th century.

His first recorded work is from 1461, a replica (untraced) of the miraculous Virgin and Child of St. Luke in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore of Rome, for the seignior of Pesaro, Alessandro Sforza.

Later he worked to a series of frescoes in the Monastery of Tor de' Specchi in Rome, featuring stories of the life of S. Francesca Romana, and to the decoration of the public rooms of the Palazzo Venezia.

The painting shows the Dominican Cardinal Juan de Torquemada (d. 1468) presenting poor girls dowered by the guild of the Annunciation.

Antoniazzo was one of the three founders of the Accademia di San Luca, the guild of painters and illuminators in Rome, and signed the statutes in 1478.